The Hunt for Red
by Bloodpage-Alchemist
Summary: Matt McGinnis has settled into his life as financial security for Batman, taking the mantle of CEO. But now Matt's missing, the Carroll Gang has escaped and a person by the name of Red X playing vigilante on his streets. What's Terry to do?


**i.**

The sound of two wooden training swords hit each other and finally one of the two people dueling fell to the tiled ground, the room having been modified to be an unstable area.

"Heh," Neil Wagner said, grinning as he looked at the other man on the floor, the current CEO of Wayne Enterprises, Matthew 'Matt' McGinnis. "Beat you."

"Did you?" Matt asked with a smirk. "You lost your footing with that shot."

"Huh?" Neil looked down just as Matt hit the unstable plank beneath them and his friend fell. "Oof!"

"Good fight though," Matt said, standing up and helping his friend do the same as the room around them returned to normal-it was, essentially, a simulation. "I wish I could move like you. You're fast."

"I wish I could think more when I move," Neil said, shaking his head, "You're like a freaking chess master but in real life."

"I hope that's a compliment," Matt said as they stretched. "Man, how do people do this all the time?"

"No idea," Neil said, shrugging. They put away their training supplies and left the gym. "Want to go to the Pour House?"

"Oh, that sounds really good, actually," Matt said, thinking of the old Internet cafe. It had the _best_ old-fashioned soda, tea, coffee _awesome_ pastries and _homemade ice cream_. Everything was always delicious and they were good friends with the owner, Mr. S, Harry Saxon, the 'King of Coffee,' they had dubbed him that a long time ago and the title had stuck. "I just have some stuff to finish up."

"The work of a CEO is never done, huh?"

"Got that right," Matt said, grinning. "C'mon, you can come up with me, I won't be long."

"Schway."

The two walked to the elevators, greeting the usual night security guard. Matt made it a point to remember everyone's name and face, and his employees all adored him, even the ones he had gotten as a result of the merger with Foxtech.

It was hard to believe it had been two years. It felt much longer than that. He slid into his chair behind his desk and turned on his computer. Neil was playing a game on his phone, causing Matt to chuckle and return his attention to work.

Finally the last thing that he had to do showed up. The program scanned his fingerprints, his eyes, his blood... tested everything before prompting him to enter a pass code and then after the phrase for it.

Now the screen was really for Matt's eyes only.

_Project ROT  
Status: Complete_

Matt stared for a long time.

If he went ahead now, there was no going back.

He smiled and typed in the launch command.

_Project ROT_

_Status: Launched_

Matt logged off of everything, wiped utterly everything clean and verified nobody was snooping. Finally, he shut everything off. "Ready?" He asked, looking up at Neil.

"Hold on just a sec," Neil said, finishing the level of the game and whooping. "Never got past it before."

Matt just laughed, "Schway."

"All right, let's go."

The two friends stood to go and Matt raised an eyebrow. "The door isn't opening." He tugged and pushed at it and looked at Neil, who raised an eyebrow.

"Let me try."

"Sure."

Neil attempted it, but nothing. "The heck..."

Matt went to his desk and picked up the phone, only to look up since he heard a thud. Neil had collapsed. "Neil?" Matt was going to go to his friend when his nose detected _something_ different in the air. He quickly made a makeshift mask from his suit's jacket and picked up the phone.

Nothing. Dead.

He ran to examine his friend, but Neil was definitely out cold.

Well, he wouldn't miss his suit jacket then...

He ran to the vent and shoved Neil's jacket into it and grabbed his chair and began to slam it into the window. But he was weakening, he was tiring.

No, no! Not like this, not like this... what...

_The computer!_ Matt turned it on and pulled up the messenger, thankful for its speed, but he was already woozy and everything was blurring together...

Terry... Terry...

_Help office Neil can't go poison_

Matt could barely think straight now and the last coherent thought he had was hitting the send button before he collapsed.


End file.
